Tour-Tracker takes the hammering out of managing two-wheeled travelers to a more coasting eXperience!

Dedicated to helping women grow into intrepid bike travelers, WomanTours has been spreading the joys of two-wheeled travel since 1994. The women-only bike tour company offers more than 50 cycling trips a year, from weeklong domestic romps to epic cross-country tours (think 58 days of pedal-pushing from sea to shining sea). International bike and barge tours are also popular.

The women come for community and camaraderie and because WomanTours makes bike travel so darn fun and easy. WomanTours is a full-service, hands-on provider, handling each rider’s luggage, lodging arrangements, meals and snacks, while also providing support and gear (SAG) vehicles, guides and mechanical assistance.

WomanTours riders make their way along Spain’s roadways during a two-week inn tour.

Self-proclaimed “WomanTours groupie” Sue Rapp of Waukesha, Wisconsin, loves traveling with WomanTours because all she has to do is show up and ride. “The hardest decision you have to make every day is choosing which jersey to wear.” Rapp took her first trip in 2004. She had just beaten breast cancer and wanted to prove to herself that she was well, so she signed up for an 8-week tour. She didn’t even own a bike. Since then, Rapp has taken more than a dozen trips with WomanTours, including one that had her pedaling over the Andes Mountains.

“WomanTours inspires you to push beyond what you think you can do,” said Rapp. “They supply the support service around women to make sure they achieve their goals and will work overtime to make sure you have a wonderful time.”

Jackie on the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro

WomanTours owner Jackie Marchand began cycling during her college years before she even knew that cycling was a thing. “I bought a bike and started pedaling around, going up roads to see where they would take me. I had no idea anyone else did that.” After earning her MBA, Marchand spent a decade at Terry Bicycles, an East Coast manufacturer of female-tailored bikes. She worked with WomanTours on joint marketing projects, took some trips with the tour company and purchased it in 2004 when the founder retired.

When Marchand took over, she inherited an eXisting FileMaker Pro custom application that came via a subscription service. Almost immediately, she saw opportunities for improvement. Marchand understood FileMaker Pro — she had taken classes and utilized an intricate FileMaker Pro app at Terry. She tried to make the existing solution work for her but struggled getting the reports she needed. Seeing firsthand the limitations of a subscription service, Marchand opted to pursue building her own custom FileMaker Pro app and hired eXcelisys.

For eXcelisys developer Laura Vie, digging into WomanTours’ FileMaker Pro application was a complete joy ride. As an avid cyclist herself and secretary of the Missouri Bicycle Federation, Vie was excited to work on the project. Vie had pedaled her way through many organized rides and driven SAG several times, so she felt a direct link to the project.

Vie knew from personal eXperience that out on the open road — especially in remote areas — you don’t want to come up short of tools, spare tubes, food and water, or a place to rest your weary head at night. Vie approached the app development as if she was coordinating her own far-flung adventure. In her mind’s eye, she could see the planning and eXecution of an epic ride unfold before her as she laid out the modules, step by step.

Like the Tour de France, FileMaker Pro app building is conquered one stage at a time. For Vie, the road to victory unfolded like this:

Stage 1: Dashboard Development

After noodling around the old application, Vie began an epic redesign. The original FileMaker Pro solution lacked branding and effective navigation. Instead of simple keywords, it utilized color-coded square buttons with abbreviations to navigate around different layouts, making it difficult for users to sort through the details. Vie created a cleaner, well-branded dashboard with clear-cut navigation tabs to ensure ease of use.

Welcome screen of old app

A significant shortcoming of the old solution was the lack of company resource management to ensure tours were properly equipped. “I started thinking about workflow and what information they need to run the tours,” said Vie, “so I added a preferences panel so WomanTours could manage all of its tour assets. The old FileMaker Pro solution tracked registration activity but offered no means to keep track of all of the support elements necessary for a smoothly functioning tour.”

New tour-tracker dashboard

In the preferences layout, added to the new Tour-Tracker app, WomanTours can track the behind-the-scenes elements that make tour support appear seamless to the riders. Marchand can manage assets like the bike rental fleet, the tour vans and staff.

When planning and scheduling tours, Marchand needs to know what resources are available. Within the preferences area, every resource with its current status can be quickly updated so nothing is double-booked or scheduled when unavailable. Bikes and vans can be pulled out of service for maintenance and repairs. Each tour guide’s availability can be actively managed, as well as their applicable credentials, ensuring they keep matters like their first aid certifications up to date.

Stage 2: Planning a Tour de Fun

Having taken bike trips herself, Vie knew that the success was in the details so she added a “tour” panel that allows WomanTours to construct new trips and manage all of the details of each trip (like vendors and lodging). When a new trip is built, WomanTours staff can use the Tour-Tracker to add maps, course descriptions, terrain details and arrival and departure information for the tour.

Since WomanTours has a lot of repeat customers, it’s imperative that new trips are added to the roster each year. The tour panel helps simplify this process. Some trips — like the 3,100-mile Southern Tier ride from San Diego to St. Augustine, Florida — are so popular they are repeated frequently. Because the trip information is captured in the Tour-Tracker solution, it’s easy to duplicate past trips or tweak them after receiving feedback from participants.

Stage 3: Capturing Reservations / Registrations

Having been involved with MO Bike Federation rides, Vie understood the registration details necessary for a successful trip and added a comprehensive registration panel where WomanTours staff can view the details of each person’s reservation. On the administrative end, rider preferences and payment information are captured here.

Registration screen from the original app

As for the actual tour, the information helps with trip planning. Guides can see if a participant will be bringing her own bike or renting one from WomanTours. Room assignment preferences are noted here, as are dietary and medical needs. Knowing the dietary restrictions of each participant is important as staffers work to prepare high-calorie / high-fuel meals to keep the riders going. Some trips include restaurant meals, but often, when traveling through remote areas, meals are cooked in a traveling kitchen by a tour leader or chef, who needs access to each rider’s food allergies and preferences.

Registration screen from redesigned app

Stage 4: Hitting the Road

Each tour leader is given a roster and manifest that give her a snapshot of the riders on her tour. The ride roster has the important contact information for every rider to make sure everyone is accounted for throughout the journey. The ride manifest includes information about health issues, food preferences, room assignments, date of birth and an emergency contact should the need arise.

Prior to each trip, registered participants receive pre-trip packets with a supply list and a training guide to help them prepare for the miles ahead. This is an invaluable resource for seasoned riders and newbies alike. The ride roster makes these mailings easy. “The office is unbelievable,” said Rapp. “They make sure everyone is well-prepared coming into the trip.”

Stage 5: Keeping them Coming

The contact panel is another important hub in the WomanTours Tour-Tracker application. In the “notes” section, WomanTours can track guest interactions so tour leaders can stay up to speed on the riders they serve. “They come back year after year,” said Marchand. “We need to know what’s going on in their lives. We are a personalized business. They expect us to remember that they are getting over an injury, or that their husband had cancer last year.”

The contact management system also helps with targeted promotions. If a woman inquires about trips to Albania, it can be added to her contact information so she can be notified should a trip to Albania arise. (Yes, this is on the WomanTours docket for 2019).

Stage 6: Freewheeling into the Future

Marchand has been pleased with the performance of her eXcelisys-built FileMaker Pro app, which handles all of the trip minutiae so the tour guides can focus on taking care of the guests. When riders feel overwhelmed by the miles ahead, Marchand reminds them that all they have to do is ride — WomanTours will take care of everything else so they can expend all of their energy on the road. “You can ride 50 miles in a day if you don’t have to do anything else.”

These days, Marchand spends a lot of her time planning new trips. She doesn’t get out on the road with guests as often as she’d like, but when she does, she’s reminded of the people on the front end that the backend Tour-Tracker database application serves. What she loves most about WomanTours is “watching the growth in our guests. Even on a four-day tour, they change from the first ride to the last picnic. They are so much more self-confident and empowered. They come off the bike just beaming.”

Mike Contreras would like to teach the world to move. Fluidly. Adeptly. With no hitches. No pain. “Our research — and the research out there — shows that if you can improve how somebody moves, you can improve everything about the quality of their life.” Thanks to a custom FileMaker Go iPad App built by eXcelisys, Contreras’s data now moves fluidly and adeptly too.

To create a culture of movement that helps people move better, reduces the potential of injury, and enables businesses to realize the full potential of their workforce ~ FMS Health & Safety Mission Statement

A Battalion Chief with the Orange County Fire Authority and founder of FMS Health & Safety, Contreras began exploring the intersection of health and movement in 2006 when he took charge of the Fire Authority’s wellness and fitness program. As Contreras worked with Fire Academy recruits and their workers’ compensation claims, he wondered if there was a way to predict — and thus prevent — future injury.

Contreras’ investigation led him to the Functional Movement Screen. Developed by physical therapist Gray Cook and athletic trainer Lee Burton, the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) is a popular assessment tool used by trainers to identify risk factors for injury. FMS first took off as a screening tool for athletes. It’s used at the NFL and NHL combines, said Contreras. “The thought was, before we take them out full steam ahead, let’s see if there are limitations and fix them. Then we can go play hard.”

FMS utilizes seven movement screens that test the biomechanics of the hips, core, shoulders, spine, knees and ankles. Using the tests, a screener can identify dysfunctional movement patterns, weaknesses and asymmetries so corrective exercises can be prescribed to restore functional movement, thus decreasing the risk of musculoskeletal injury.

After Contreras instituted FMS at the firehouse, injury rates dipped and workers’ compensation claims decreased. The success of the FMS program put a fire in his belly and in December 2015, Contreras founded FMS Health & Safety to bring functional movement to the masses.

Law and Order

Initially, FMS Health & Safety targeted tactical athletes (like firefighters, police and the military) as well as other industries (like manufacturers and utility companies) who sought to minimize work-related injuries to reduce workers’ compensation costs. Later, FMS Health & Safety took on corporate clients interested in employee wellness. “Our program is for anybody who wants to improve the movement and, ultimately, the capabilities and capacity of their workers,” said Contreras.

In the early days, FMS Health & Safety screeners used paper scorecards to collect test data. Afterward, they keyed the results into Excel. “As we took on more clients, this got to be problematic,” said Contreras. “A spreadsheet is great for one client, but one client with 3,000 employees in 70 locations, it starts to be a challenge.” Contreras also began to worry that the paper data was not secure and could be lost in transit before it was collated in Excel.

Contreras also ran into problems with accessibility and usability. “Data is only good if you can control it and use it,” said Contreras, noting he needs efficient data analysis capabilities to put together appropriate post-screen training and education programs for clients. In addition, the paperwork piled up. Literally. Because FMS Health & Safety holds client records for five years, Contreras had to rent a storage locker to house the paper overflow.

As the drawbacks to this paper-driven, spreadsheet system mounted, Contreras decided to pursue other options.

Pain Relieved with an eXercise

FMS Health & Safety decided to explore the idea of a custom database application and attended an Idea to iPad seminar hosted by Apple and FileMaker, Inc. Contreras was hooked up with a FileMaker Pro developer and started down the path for a custom database solution. “I was sold on the concept,” said Contreras.

Unfortunately Contreras became frustrated with the project and shelved it for nine months. But the business kept growing and other business opportunities arose, such as licensing his screening system. “I realized, I can’t license a pencil and a piece of paper, so I circled back around.” Contreras contacted FileMaker, Inc., again and asked for a referral for another FileMaker Pro developer. Soon after, FileMaker connected Contreras with eXcelisys and eXcelisys’ VP/Project Manager Doug West took over.

“Doug is phenomenal,” said Contreras. “He took the time to understand the complete FileMaker Go iPad App — the A to Z of my plan and my needs and how this database was going to fit into my whole operation. I wouldn’t be using FileMaker Pro if it wasn’t for Doug.”

The FMS Health & Safety database is hosted in the FileMaker Cloud. iPads connect and sync to get the latest information. This also shares the data with those people who have been screened. Using a desktop computer, they can access their data, along with reminders about the corrective exercises assigned to them.

During Doug’s initial review he found that the previous developer had built much of the data collection interface and had set up the app for hosting on the FileMaker Cloud. This was a good option for Contreras because his company doesn’t have an IT department to maintain a local server so a hands-off, cloud-based hosting option was ideal.

To be useful, the data had to go both directions. The iPads in the field needed to be able to pull down data from the hosted file, as well as send information back to it. Doug developed a custom synchronization routine to keep the data up-to-date between the FileMaker Cloud database and the offline copies used for data collection in FileMaker Go on the iPads. “It’s a fully automated, one-click process for exchanging data with the server,” said Doug.

In addition, the FileMaker Go database solution lacked branding, so Doug added the FMS Health & Safety corporate colors and logo and stylized the FileMaker Go iPad App interface so it was more consistent with the company’s corporate image.

Contreras likes the simplicity and ease with which the database can be utilized. “We don’t build rockets here. It’s pretty simple and the interface makes it simple.”

FMS Health & Safety uses the mobility screening data it collects to identify where employees have limitations in their movement so corrective exercises can be implemented.

Doug also saw an opportunity to add back-office capabilities and turned the solution into more than a data collection tool. The FileMaker Go iPad App system now handles invoicing. Previously, clients used a sign-in sheet at the screening site and Contreras had to reconcile the names one by one.

Functional for the Future

Contreras is pleased with the final outcome of his custom FileMaker Go/Pro database solution and the efficiency the iPads add to the screening process. He says the iPads have cut data-entry man hours by 98 percent and he’s relieved to know the data is safe and secure. “It allows us to focus on the things we need to focus on instead of punching endless numbers into a spreadsheet.”

And what Contreras wants to focus on is helping people. Contreras sees FMS Health & Safety as an extension of his firefighter duty to help people in distress. While many clients hire FMS Health & Safety hoping to reduce lost days and workers’ compensation claims, Contreras remains committed to the employees. “We’re doing it for the workers,” he said. “I could retire tomorrow with a pension and be fine, but truly, I really look at, ‘Do you know how many lives we could change if we could teach people how to care for themselves?’ ”

For Contreras, caring for oneself involves maintaining functional mobility. “I’ve seen it before — where the inability to squat or go to the bathroom becomes a death sentence. You fall, go to a care home, get an infection and die. Maybe that doesn’t have to be the outcome.”

To read about another eXcelisys solution that benefits the healthcare industry, click here.

]]>https://www.excelisys.com/news/filemaker-go-ipad-app-health-safety/feed/0[FMP Tip-n-Trick] FileMaker Pro Hierarchical Portal Filtering 2.3 Using Drag-n-Drophttps://www.excelisys.com/fm-tips/filemaker-pro-hierarchical-portal-filtering-2-3-drag-n-drop/
https://www.excelisys.com/fm-tips/filemaker-pro-hierarchical-portal-filtering-2-3-drag-n-drop/#commentsTue, 20 Jun 2017 13:33:42 +0000https://www.excelisys.com/?p=104997Hierarchical Portal Filtering Incorporating Drag-n-Drop Technique By Andy Persons This is part three of a three-part series on hierarchical portal filtering in FileMaker Pro. You can find part one here… read more →

By Andy Persons

This is part three of a three-part series on hierarchical portal filtering in FileMaker Pro. You can find part one here and part two here. Demonstrating how to provide drag-and-drop rearranging and arbitrary sorting of hierarchical items.

Standard Interface

A common request when implementing hierarchical portal filtering is the ability to drag an item exactly where you want it to go. If you want it inside another element, just drag it on top. If you want it between two elements, just drag it in between them.

It’s a standard interface element in other areas, such as the Finder in MacOS, Explorer in Windows, and on some websites. However, the intuitive simplicity conceals quite a bit of complexity.

It needs to be able to clearly indicate when an item will be dropped “inside” another and when it will be “inserted” between two items.

It needs to elegantly handle the edge case when a user drags an item between the last child of parent and the parent’s “sibling”. Does it become the last child of that parent or the next sibling of the parent?

It needs to maintain the hierarchical structure at all times while providing arbitrary sort order.

Concealed Complexity

Here’s the overview:

This technique uses the drag-and-drop method demonstrated in this file, along with drop-target CSS to provide the visual indicators.

Each portal row has three container fields as drop targets. The top field will sort the dragged item above it (indicated by a line on its top border) and the bottom one will sort it below it (indicated by a line on its bottom border). The third field will make the dragged item a child of that record. Its drop target CSS is set to change the entire background color.

Sorting is accomplished by loading a dictionary of each related record’s id and sort number into a global variable at record load. The sort_path field uses this to calculate the sort number of each ancestor record into a single decimal number. To maintain the correct hierarchical sorting, the sort is padded with zeroes at the beginning and end. If the limits of four integer and six decimal digits are exceeded, it will automatically re-serialize the siblings.

These features could also be combined with the sorting from Part 2, if desired.

**This article is provided for free and as-is, use, enjoy, learn, and experiment at your own risk – but have fun! eXcelisys does not offer any free support or free assistance with any of the contents of this blog post. If you would like help or assistance, please consider retaining eXcelisys’ FileMaker Pro consulting & development services.

eXcelisys, Inc. is an independent entity and this web site/information/blog post has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise affiliated with FileMaker, Inc. FileMaker is a trademark of FileMaker, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

By: Doug West

**Requires FileMaker Pro 16

Ziptastic is a simple web service for accessing geolocation data associated with postal codes. The API provided at getziptastic.com supports postal codes in 70 countries. By sending a US-based ZIP Code in a URL, we can quickly and easily get the associated city, county, and state. This service replaces the hassle of creating and updating an offline reference for postal codes.

We first provided the Ziptastic tip file for this web service roughly four years ago as a demonstration of the Insert From URL script step that was introduced in FileMaker Pro 12. Enhancements in FileMaker Pro 16 now allow us to simplify this process even more. Let’s take a look at the fundamental differences:

OLD Way (FileMaker Pro 12+)

Insert From URL script step returns JSON results to a global field

Separate script is called to parse field values out of the JSON data object

NEW Way (FileMaker Pro 16+)

Insert From URL script step returns JSON results to a global variable

JSONGetElement function is called to parse field values out of the JSON data object

Net Result
We have eliminated the script for the JSON parsing and the global field we were using to store the response from the Ziptastic API. Adding this feature to a solution now requires only one script and no additional fields. The script can be triggered when the user exists the ZIP Code field, and the city and state will be looked up so the user doesn’t have to enter them manually.

The Ziptastic service continues to be free for up to 100 requests per day, but now offers premium service levels for higher usage. The revenue generated by the subscriptions allows them to update the data monthly instead of only twice a year. Additional details for this web service can be found at getziptastic.com, but the concepts described in this tip are relevant to any web service using JSON as the data interchange format.

**This article is provided for free and as-is, use, enjoy, learn, and experiment at your own risk – but have fun! eXcelisys does not offer any free support or free assistance with any of the contents of this blog post. If you would like help or assistance, please consider retaining eXcelisys’ FileMaker Pro consulting & development services.

eXcelisys, Inc. is an independent entity and this web site/information/blog post has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise affiliated with FileMaker, Inc. FileMaker is a trademark of FileMaker, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

Located on the Rifle River in Sterling, Michigan, River View Campground & Canoe Livery hosts some 2,000 guests each weekend.

Paper-process overload is one of the top reasons organizations turn to a FileMaker Pro Custom App. In the mid-2000s, River View Campground & Canoe Livery co-owner Todd Golebiewski realized he needed a better canoe and campground management system to stay afloat. With 300 canoes, 200 kayaks and 1,500 tubes — plus 2,000 weekend campers — it was a little too much to track with River View’s old-fashioned paper-stuffed binder system.

Located two hours north of Detroit, River View has experienced a steady current of growth since opening in 1991. Golebiewski co-owns the campground with his mother, Joanne Schmid. “We are one of the Midwest’s largest canoe, tube and kayak outfitters,” said Golebiewski, whose 160-acre campground in Sterling, Michigan, includes 1.3 miles of frontage on the Rifle River. “On any given weekend we cater to about 2,000 guests.”

The Rifle River is a favorite waterway for city dwellers who want to kick back, sip some suds and soak up the sun. Likewise, the Rifle is popular with families who prefer the safety of a mellow-moving river when taking a break from their land-based lives.

Relaxing on the Rifle River / photo courtesy of River View Campground & Canoe Livery

“Our experience here is a combination of Mardi Gras and NFL tailgate,” said Golebiewski, who also works in sports broadcasting as a field technician for SMT (formerly Sportvision). “There are loud and rowdy groups but also families who want a quieter experience. We separate them in our park by having two distinct areas for them to gather and play.”

In 2006, Golebiewski decided to bail on his paper-and-binder system but came up empty-handed in his software search. “We looked at all of the existing solutions for campground management, but there was nothing that dealt with river trip operations in quite the way that we operate, so we decided to do it ourselves. We chose to go with a FileMaker Pro custom app. because we were familiar with Apple products, but quickly realized we could not do it all ourselves, so we sought out an experienced developer and found eXcelisys.”

Up a Creek Without a Canoe Tracker

When Golebiewski came to eXcelisys with his idea for the Canoe Tracker, he had already built the interface and basic inventory database but needed help with more complex features like generating the trip schedule and displaying the live inventory. For each day to flow smoothly, the FileMaker Pro custom app database needed to track the river inventory and the people with their ever-evolving plans.

“River View has a flood of customers every weekend from sunup to sundown,” said eXcelisys Solution Consultant Laura Vie, who completed development work on the project. “People make reservations, but they change their minds. They come running into the office in their swimsuits wanting a kayak instead of a canoe, or needing to switch departure times. It was a nightmare logistically.”

Campers queue up for rides to the river drops / photo courtesy of River View

As guests modified their plans, the office workers picked up their walkie-talkies to alert the canoe operators and bus drivers, who tried to keep up by jotting down changes on their clipboards. Now, whenever there’s a scheduling or equipment change, it’s updated across the network and available on the office desktops and on iPads in the field.

Prior to each departure, bus drivers receive a printed copy of the updated master schedule (shown above), which tells them which group is going out, as well as which specific members of the group and how many adults (ADLT) and kids (KDS). The schedule also details the river equipment each member has rented. For example: C (canoe); DK (double kayak); SK (single kayak); DT (double tube); RT (river tube); CT (cooler tube); and KT (kiddy tube).

Up-to-the-minute river trip information is available for viewing on iPads or iPhones for use at remote river landings. This helps operators prepare equipment for bus arrivals and track which groups are still on the river at any given moment.

The float coordinator now has a master schedule (with up-to-the-minute changes) that is printed prior to each bus departure. This helps with managing the hordes of campers queued up to get on the river. Each weekend, some 200 to 300 people depart for the river every 30 minutes between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

“The coordinator hands the updated master sheet to the bus driver, which gives a count of the people, tells which location to drive to, and what gear should be there,” said Golebiewski. “Say there’s 300 people ready to go out. We know that’s comprised of 12 different groups and can call off group names to get them loaded quickly.”

Equipment management is smoother because office staffers know exactly what river inventory is available each day. The database tracks canoes, kayaks, river tubes and “cooler” tubes that can be tied on and towed behind each flotilla to keep beverages and snacks close at hand.

The Campground Tracker keeps tabs on how much river inventory is available for rent each day.

Canoe Kindling Fuels Campground Software Bonfire

The Canoe Tracker worked so swimmingly that Golebiewski asked eXcelisys to add campground reservation functionality a few years later. In time, the Canoe Tracker morphed into the Campground Tracker to give River View one cohesive custom FileMaker Pro app database solution for managing campground and canoe reservations.

The Campground Tracker is highly visual, with interactive maps that make scheduling a breeze. Golebiewski had a hand in the map-making. He created aerial campground maps of River View in Photoshop, then handed them off to eXcelisys, who made them interactive. The interactive maps make it quick and easy for staff to find — and fill — vacant campsites.

“Visually, it’s really cool,” said Vie, who fussed with the maps to make the fields and buttons function properly. “You can click on any campsite and create a reservation for it.” In addition, the map layout includes a listing of every campsite in the section, the name of the group that has each site reserved, the number of campers in the group, and if the site is on hold or confirmed and paid.

Using the interactive maps, River View staff can click on a campsite to make a reservation. Looking at this map, it is clear that site A12 is available and can hold 4–8 campers.

The Campground Tracker streamlines:

· Campsite Management / Site Inventory: Before the Campground Tracker, administering River View’s 270 campsites involved sorting through hand-scribbled reservation slips kept in a master binder with staff members using a paper map to sort groups into sites. It was like a giant game of Tetris shuffling campers into sites that met their needs while trying to fill the campground to its maximum occupancy and ensure large groups received enough adjoining campsites so everyone could camp together. Now, with the interactive maps, the campsite information is readily available in bird’s-eye view enabling staffers to see which sites are open and how many campers each site can hold. Staffers can reassign campsites with a simple click.

· Bookings / Reservations: The Campground Tracker prevents the double booking of campsites and the overbooking of canoes because the inventory is “live.” It also allows staff to make bookings simultaneously without sharing the scheduling book. Previously, River View had one “master” binder with the reservation information and campground map on which reserved sites were marked. The office staff could only work with one booking at a time, no matter how many patrons were on the phone lines. Often, they had to take notes and make callbacks.

Golebiewski says the Campground Tracker has also reduced booking errors. With the paper system, “special requests” were scribbled on the margins of the reservation sheets and sometimes got overlooked. With the new database solution, notes are time-stamped and all reservation details are entered into a networked system everyone can access. “It helps with customer communication,” said Golebiewski, noting anyone can pick up a reservation at any moment and help the customer make any changes.

∙ Invoicing: As most campground owners know, managing groups and their payments can be tedious. One person may book for a group of 50 with each person, or couple, or family in the group paying their own fees. That’s a lot of data to keep track of and at the end of the weekend, the group may have a hefty balance if everyone hasn’t paid or if ice and firewood have been picked up at the camp store. If there’s a balance due, who is responsible? The Campground Tracker solves this issue by listing all of the purchases and charges individually for each person in the group. This makes it easy to figure out who has paid for what.

The Campground Tracker helps with billing. The “group info” tab (above) displays all of the individual member reservations within the “Bucksnort” group along with their charges and payments.

Blazing New Trails for the Future

Golebiewski continues to tweak operations at River View with the help of eXcelisys. Currently, eXcelisys is adding an email module to automate email responses. A majority of booking requests and deposits are now coming through the River View website. With the new email system, staff members will no longer have to manually reply to these electronic requests. Instead, the Campground Tracker will automatically send emails to confirm reservations, acknowledge payments and so forth.

“My eXcelisys team of Levi and Kurt [Knippel] handled my tough campground reservation system project and came up with a great FileMaker Pro custom app solution for my business,” said Golebiewski. “They were able to handle all of my curveballs and delivered a great solution that has helped my business significantly.”

FMP tip developed by David Thorp, Article written by Andy Persons

*Tested in FileMaker Pro 14-16

Virtual Lists

Since FileMaker Pro virtual lists were introduced more than five years go, they have seen wide use due to two primary benefits: flexibility and performance. The whole point of this tip is EDITING values in a virtual list. That’s new and fancy and most people believed impossible, until now!

Flexibility

FileMaker Pro Virtual lists allow us to display information (usually in a portal) in virtually (pun unintended) any configuration we want. We can gather information from a variety of sources and combine them how we wish, without impacting the schema (other than the initial setup of the virtual list structure). Once the structure is in place, we can also reuse it for multiple purposes.

Performance

FileMaker Pro Virtual lists have another, sometimes crucial benefit: they can be dramatically faster than retrieving data directly, especially over a remote connection. Because developers control what data is retrieved, they can avoid loading unnecessary data; because they control when it is retrieved, can avoid reloading it unnecessarily. This can result in greatly improved user experiences.

Limitations

However, FileMaker Pro virtual lists have a crucial limitation: because they rely on calculations, they cannot be edited directly. This technique allows us to work around this limitation.

This can be applied to any usage of FileMaker Pro virtual lists. For example, you might wish to quickly retrieve a list of contacts in a popover, while retaining the ability to edit names for quick corrections. Or you could display a list of students with their classes in a cross-tab arrangement, with the ability to change their class assignments on-the-fly.

Here’s an overview:

Global fields are placed over the virtual fields and set to be hidden except for the active row.

When a user clicks in a virtual field, the value is entered into the corresponding editable field and the focus moved there.

When the user modifies the editable global field, the database is updated.

The virtual list is then refreshed to load the changes.

The result is that a user can click into the unstored calculation field on the virtual list directly and it will seem like they are directly editing the values.

Though this technique was developed with FileMaker Pro virtual lists in mind, it could be used any time you want to create the experience of “editing” a calculation field.

ENJOY!

**This article is provided for free and as-is, use, enjoy, learn, and experiment at your own risk – but have fun! eXcelisys does not offer any free support or free assistance with any of the contents of this blog post. If you would like help or assistance, please consider retaining eXcelisys’ FileMaker Pro consulting & development services.

eXcelisys, Inc. is an independent entity and this web site/information/blog post has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise affiliated with FileMaker, Inc. FileMaker is a trademark of FileMaker, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

FileMaker Master-Detail in a Web Viewer

By: RJ Carroll

* This has been tested on FileMaker Pro 14-16

FileMaker Master-Detail views are a great way to minimize the number of separate layouts and also provide users with the best of both worlds when it comes to viewing their data as a hybrid of FileMaker Pro’s native “List” and “Form” views. A Master-Detail interface is also naturally intuitive to users familiar with side navigation panels that are commonplace across the web. Given their popularity with users, developers have long sought a simple, flexible way to implement master-detail views in custom apps.

The Old Masters

Originally, to create a Master-Detail view, the common approach was to add a second table occurrence for the table that the current layout is based on with the relationship defined as a Cartesian (“X”) join. This setup requires placing a portal to the new TO on the layout to serve as the “master” list, then attaching a Go To Related Record step to a button or field in the portal row. Because this basic approach can quickly become hard to manage in larger solutions with a lot of tables, a more popular method has been to use some type of a virtual list. (An implementation of a virtual list master-detail is the approach is that’s used in the Master Detail 2.0 module available on Modular FileMaker.) But what if you just want a Master-Detail without adding lots of extra tables, fields, and sets of scripts to your app?

Visualizing The “List Of”

One way to create FileMaker Master-Detail views everywhere with minimal overhead is to harness the power of a “List Of” summary. We’ve found a lot of magical uses of FileMaker Pro’s “List Of” summary field since it was introduced in FileMaker Pro 13. “List Of” summaries possess two key features that make them useful in setting up a new, super-fast type of Master-Detail view: (1) You have access from the current record to all the data for the entire found set and (2) the data is in the same sort order as the found set. So, just by creating a summary list of names, and placing that field on a layout, you already have a type of native master-detail view. It’s just not very useful for navigation. At least not yet…

Nobody Does Lists Like HTML

HTML lists have probably been around forever. They were definitely around when I learned HTML back in the 90’s, and they still work the same way. The cool thing about an HTML list item is that, unlike a portal row, it doesn’t care how much vertical space it takes up. Another cool thing about an HTML list item is that it–and this may be shocking–can be a link. Thanks to the specifications of FMP URI scheme, it can even be a link to the very FileMaker database you’re currently using. So this gives you immense power to create a Master-Detail view composed of only four easy steps:

Create a stored calculation field that wraps some meaningful text from the record, along with the record number or primary key in HTML <li> and <a> tags that contain an fmp:// link back to the target record in FileMaker.

Define a “List Of” summary of that field to show all the HTML elements in the found set.

Place a web viewer on the layout that references the summary field and contains a little opening and closing HTML.

Write a script to accept the parameter passed back to FileMaker when you click the link and navigate to the appropriate record.

That’s really all there is to it. Depending on how you setup your solution, the web viewer layout object, calculation and summary fields can literally be pasted into any part of your app without any modifications at all. If you want to get fancier and more creative, this FileMaker Master-Detail technique can also be expanded to harness CSS styling, sub-summary headers, images or anything else your web skills allow. Check out this implementation by downloading our demo file. It shouldn’t be hard to master the details in no time at all.

** PLEASE NOTE: A new security feature in FileMaker Pro 16 requires you to expressly enable execution of web scripting. Make sure this has been enabled as shown below.

** UPDATE 6/1/2017: Several readers pointed out an issue that prevented this tip file from working properly in FileMaker Pro 14. Doug West found the technical reason for this, which involved a change between how the Web Viewer processes data URIs differently between version 14 and 15; specifically, the MIME type must be added to the start of the Web Viewer source in 14, but not in 15. I applied a patch to the attached file by adding “data:text/html,” to the start of the Web Viewer calculation and verified that it now works in FileMaker 14. The patched file (Build x06) replaces the previous version and is now available on this post.

***This article is provided for free and as-is, use, enjoy, learn, and experiment at your own risk – but have fun! eXcelisys does not offer any free support or free assistance with any of the contents of this blog post. If you would like our help or assistance, please consider retaining eXcelisys’ consulting & development services.

eXcelisys, Inc. is an independent entity and this web site/information/blog post has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise affiliated with FileMaker, Inc. FileMaker is a trademark of FileMaker, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

By: Doug West

**Tested on FileMaker Pro versions 14-16

Portals are great for displaying information in the appropriate context. Unfortunately, they don’t always provide the most intuitive user experience when newcomers are learning how to enter data in a FileMaker solution.

After configuring a relationship in the Manage Database window to enable the option to “Allow creation of records in this table via this relationship”, we can easily create related records within a portal by simply typing new values in the last row of a corresponding portal. Entering the first batch of related records seems straightforward enough. But what happens once you’ve exceeded the number of visible rows in the portal?

Here is where we start to see the puzzled looks. When we’re ready to add the next related record, we first have to scroll through the list of existing records to access the blank “record creation row” at the bottom. This is enough of a nuisance that we often see buttons to improve the user experience through scripting.

So today’s challenge was to find the most efficient solution to this usability problem, with the added requirement to present the results in descending order by date. This concept for inverted portals must allow creation of new records on the first row, followed by the existing data rows from newest to oldest. We’ll be able to add entries without the nuisance of scrolling and we’ll see the most relevant information first.

So how can we get the record creation row to appear at the top of the portal? As is often the case in FileMaker Pro, there is more than one way to do it. Maybe your first attempt could involve some global fields for entering data above the portal, which could then trigger a script to create a related record, set the data, and clear the global fields. Effective? Sure, but not elegant. I’m looking for a cleaner approach that’s a bit “lighter”.

How about two portals using the same related table occurrence with no scripts and no extra fields? By telling our first portal to filter out all existing records (using a very simple formula! (see demo)), we’re left with just the record creation row. Position that above another copy of the same portal showing the existing data sorted by date, while hiding objects in the record creation row at the bottom.

We now have an upside-down portal that’s sure to satisfy developers and end users alike! We haven’t added any scripts, fields, or table occurrences, and we’ve saved your users at least a few mouse-clicks along the way.

ENJOY!

**This article is provided for free and as-is, use, enjoy, learn, and experiment at your own risk – but have fun! eXcelisys does not offer any free support or free assistance with any of the contents of this blog post. If you would like help or assistance, please consider retaining eXcelisys’ FileMaker Pro consulting & development services.

eXcelisys, Inc. is an independent entity and this web site/information/blog post has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise affiliated with FileMaker, Inc. FileMaker is a trademark of FileMaker, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

]]>https://www.excelisys.com/fm-tips/inverted-portals-filemaker-pro/feed/10[FMP Tip-n-Trick] FileMaker Pro Hierarchical Portal Filtering 2.2https://www.excelisys.com/fm-tips/filemaker-pro-hierarchical-portal-filtering-2-2/
https://www.excelisys.com/fm-tips/filemaker-pro-hierarchical-portal-filtering-2-2/#commentsFri, 05 May 2017 19:04:19 +0000https://www.excelisys.com/?p=104406Hierarchical Portal Filtering within FileMaker Pro By Andy Persons This is the second of a three-part series on FileMaker Pro hierarchical portal filtering. You can find part one here. This FileMaker… read more →

Static Approach

The most straightforward approach would require creating an index “path” calculation for every field that you might want to sort by. For example, if you wanted to sort by name, you’d have to create a sort_name field that contained “Plants Vegetables Roots Carrots”. Each additional field that you wanted users to be able to sort by would need a similar field. Also, whenever a record was edited, all descendant records would need to have their sort fields updated.

Dynamic Approach

For very small data sets, you could make the path field an unstored calculation and have each record calculate up the path chain dynamically. However, this would very quickly become so slow as to be unusable.

Dynamic Approach with High-Performance

This FileMaker Pro hierarchical portal filtering file demonstrates an approach that combines the light footprint of a dynamic approach with performance closer to that of a static approach.

Here’s the overview:

A dictionary field (sort_dictionary) of record id’s and sort field values is created in the data table.

Before sorting, all related values of sort_dictionary are copied into a global variable named $$sort_dictionary using the List() function.

A sort key field (sort_key) is calculated on the fly by replacing IDs in the record’s id_path with the corresponding sort value from $$sort_dictionary and padding it with zeros if it’s a number field.

For example, an id_path with “000001 000034 000052 000076” would become “Plants Vegetables Roots Carrots” on the fly, using the values from $$sort_dictionary

The portal is then set to sort by sort_key.

Because the data from both id_path and $$sort_dictionary have already been downloaded to the local machine, sort_key can calculate very quickly.

Next Installment: Hierarchy Advanced 2.3

Drag-and-drop arbitrary sorting and reassignment

Stay Tuned!

**This article is provided for free and as-is, use, enjoy, learn, share, leave awesome feedback, and experiment at your own risk – but have fun! eXcelisys does not offer any free support or free assistance with any of the contents of this blog post. If you would like help or assistance, please consider retaining eXcelisys’ FileMaker Pro consulting & development services.

eXcelisys, Inc. is an independent entity and this web site/information/blog post has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise affiliated with FileMaker, Inc. FileMaker is a trademark of FileMaker, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

]]>https://www.excelisys.com/fm-tips/filemaker-pro-hierarchical-portal-filtering-2-2/feed/7Basics Before You Buy a WordPress Themehttps://www.excelisys.com/wordpress-tips/basics-purchase-wordpress-theme/
https://www.excelisys.com/wordpress-tips/basics-purchase-wordpress-theme/#respondThu, 04 May 2017 14:00:59 +0000https://www.excelisys.com/?p=79480WordPress Theme Purchasing Considerations By: Fred Morgan WordPress originally began life as a blogging engine, but over time has matured into not only a great content management system (CMS), but… read more →

By: Fred Morgan

WordPress originally began life as a blogging engine, but over time has matured into not only a great content management system (CMS), but also a full-fledged application development framework. Consequently, WordPress holds the lion’s share of the CMS market and its widespread use has spurred the development of countless WordPress themes and plugins to extend its feature set. However, not all WordPress themes and plugins are created equal.

There is so much variation in the way a WordPress theme (and plugin) are developed for WordPress that I am never really sure if I like it or not until I install it and start working with it on the back end. That being said, here are a few things to consider before making your WordPress theme purchase to reduce the risk of ending up with a theme you are not satisfied with.

1. Is the WordPress theme responsive?

If not, forget it and move on to the next option. People will be accessing your site from smartphones, tablets, and computers with various size monitors. A responsive WordPress theme will automatically adjust to the screen size of the device that is requesting the page and the menus and other resources will reformat accordingly. In today’s web world, it is absolutely critical that your site is responsive so your audience has a consistent user experience optimized for the device they are using.

Responsive themes are developed using CSS and HTML, and the CSS files can get very complex with all of the rules required to address the myriad devices in use today. Some developers choose to write their own CSS for this purpose, which is fine so long as it works, however, my favorite themes are built with Bootstrap. Not only is Bootstrap a complete front end framework containing fully-baked responsive CSS and robust JavaScript elements that are simple to implement, it is also by far the most used framework on the web. Since virtually all professional web developers are familiar with Bootstrap, choosing a theme that is built around this framework will ensure that your developer will be able to customize your theme with minimal effort, which means time and cost savings for you.

2. Is the theme well documented and supported by the author?

My favorite themes are generally the ones that are well-documented and well-supported. In a marketplace like Theme Forest, you can determine the latter by the comments and reviews posted by people who have purchased the theme so you can see what kind of issues they have encountered as they have installed and configured it. You should also choose a theme that is updated regularly as new versions of WP and required plugins are released.

A theme that is documented and supported well by the author will make the development effort much quicker, and since time = money, it will also be less expensive in the long run.

3. Is the WordPress theme compatible with the current version of WordPress?

This probably goes without saying, but any time you purchase a WordPress theme you should make sure it is compatible with the current version of WordPress. WordPress has changed significantly over the years and the later releases implement features and libraries that may not be compatible with older themes.

4. What assets are included with the WordPress theme?

Many WordPress themes do not include the assets (images) shown in the demo. This often leaves you with a lot of graphic placeholders that need to be replaced with your own images. This is fine for a general purpose theme, but can be a real pain to rebuild like the demo that the you or your client fell in love with if you purchase a WordPress theme for a particular vertical market (e.g., a hair salon or restaurant) it looks .

5. Does the WordPress theme come with an XML import file for demo content?

If the WordPress theme includes an XML import file, it will make your life much easier. An XML import makes it very easy to set up the theme just like the demo. Importing the XML file will typically create the menus and sample pages as well as download the image assets into the media library. This allows you to start with the theme set up just like the demo and begin making your modifications from that point, rather than having to build all of the pages, menus, etc. from scratch. It is always easier to edit pages and menus that have already been created than to build it all from the ground up.

6. What plugins are required by the WordPress theme and are they well supported?

WordPress themes can have required plugins so it is a good idea to take a look at those WordPress plugins to make sure they are also well documented, supported, and regularly updated. WordPress is frequently updated and can be set to do so automatically. This is a convenient feature because many of the updates are security-related. However, it is possible that a WordPress core update could cause one or more of your plugins to not function properly.

There are literally thousands of plugins available for WordPress, so be careful when selecting plugins that will be an integral component of the design or functionality of your site. Just because it looks pretty now doesn’t mean you won’t have issues with it later when a security vulnerability is discovered and the plugin has to be disabled until it is patched.

7. Is the WordPress theme specifically designed for (or at least compatible with) the plugins you intend to use?

If you intend to use a plugin like WooCommerce (a very popular e-commerce plugin) or BuddyPress to provide core functionality for your site, it is important to choose a theme that is either specifically designed for, or at least compatible with, that plugin.

8. How important is page load speed to you?

Page load speed is always something to consider with WordPress. Because your site’s content is housed in a MySQL database, each page load requires the web server to interact with the database server and wait for responses. This can often cause some lag with the page load speed, especially in shared hosting environments.

WordPress themes range from clean and minimalist to heavily designed, and which is best is really a matter of preference. However, themes and plugins load libraries and resources (e.g., css and javascript files), and some of them can contribute to slow page load speeds. This can be true for even a minimalist theme. For instance, BuddyPress is a very popular community building plugin, but it is also a rather large application in and of itself with quite a bit of overhead. Complex plugins like this (or ecommerce plugins) can cause even a minimalist theme to become bloated and ultimately lag.

Consequently, if page load speed is important to you, doing a page load speed analysis is a good idea. Google provides a free tool for this purpose at: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/. Running the test on the demo site for the theme may not provide the most accurate results since demos are typically embedded within the marketplace site. This may make page load speeds appear longer than they would if the theme were installed on your site. However, running tests on various themes within the same marketplace should help you see how they compare to each other in terms of speed.

Performance testing should be repeated once the theme is installed in its base configuration within your own hosting configuration, after activating all of the plugins you intend to use. Scrapping a theme and choosing a different one at this point is much less expensive than waiting until significant development effort has been expended and finding out then that the theme or plugins have some inherent issues affecting page load speed.

9. Is the WordPress theme highly rated by other users?

As mentioned in the first point of this article, a WordPress theme can look good on the front end but be a disaster on the back end and there is no way of knowing for sure until you install it and begin working with it. This is where purchasing your theme from an online marketplace can be advantageous compared to purchasing directly from the developer. A theme marketplace like Envato Market will typically offer reviews from other users who have purchased the theme in the past. The review system allows users to rate the theme and post comments regarding what they found challenging/serendipitous to work with, the quality of support offered by the theme developer, etc. These reviews can help sort out the good from the bad before spending your hard earned cash on a theme purchase.

Of course, there are other things you may want to consider depending on your particular needs, but this list should get you headed in the right direction.

**This article is provided for free and as-is, use, enjoy, learn, and experiment at your own risk – but have fun! eXcelisys does not offer any free support or free assistance with any of the contents of this blog post. If you would like help or assistance, please consider retaining eXcelisys’ WordPress consulting & development services.

** eXcelisys, Inc. is an independent entity and this web site/information/blog post has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise affiliated with The WordPress Foundation, WordCamp, or the WordPress open source project.